Christopher Buondelmonti and the Isolario

Turner, Hilary L.

doi:10.1179/tin.1987.19.1.11

Cited by 8 publications

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“…Cristoforo Buondelmonti (c. 1385 -c. 1430) traveled the Greek islands seeking to purchase manuscripts of works of classical literature for patrons back in Florence, and these travels served as the basis for his Liber insularum archipelagi (Book of the Islands of the Archipelago). This was the first island book illustrated with maps, which Buondelmonti wrote in 1420, and then expanded in two subsequent versions completed in 1422 and 1430; the work survives in about seventy manuscripts (Campana, 1957;Turner, 1987;Ragone, 2002;Bessi, 2012). 13 The author ends the work by mentioning his first-hand experience of the islands: 14 And so let there be an end at last, after I journeyed through the islands of the whole archipelago in four years with much fear and anxiety, and came to this island of Aegina, where the head of St. George is reverenced within sight of the city of Athens.…”

Section: Isolariimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cartographer Sets Sail: Eyewitness Records and Early Modern Maps

Duzer

2021

Cult. Hist. Digit. J.

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In this article I examine early nautical charts and isolarii, or island books illustrated with maps, for evidence that indicates the maps were made on the basis of first-hand observation by the cartographer. There are very few claims on early nautical charts that the charts were created based on the cartographers’ own observations. I suggest that these claims are rare because chart-making was more an artistic enterprise than as a medium for recording discoveries. This conception of nautical charts changed with the advent of the Age of Discoveries, and claims that charts were made based on eyewitness information become more common. The case with isolarii is very different, although the maps in isolarii derive from the nautical chart tradition. Some of the creators of isolarii claim that their works were based on first-hand experience, but not always truthfully. Other authors neither sailed among the islands they describe nor claim to have visited them.

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Section: Isolariimentioning

confidence: 99%